Cisco introduced new silicon, systems and optical technologies at the Open Compute Project Global Summit 2026 in San Jose, California, on October 12, 2026, to support open AI infrastructure ranging from rack-scale compute to distributed capacity. The company aims to provide resilient open Ethernet foundations that connect and scale large AI factories for hyperscalers, neoclouds and enterprises by advancing openness across silicon, systems and optics.
Kevin Wollenweber, SVP and General Manager of Data Center and Internet Infrastructure at Cisco, stated that AI is redefining infrastructure scale beyond individual data centers or clusters to connecting compute at massive scale without loss of performance or resilience. Cisco’s scale-across approach links coordinated AI workloads across facilities using Silicon One P200 systems, deep-buffered designs and coherent optics so that fabrics at different sites function as one unified cluster. The company reported that its 51.2T systems powered by the Silicon One P200 are now deployed in production by leading hyperscalers.
Microsoft and Alibaba Cloud confirmed production use of these systems. Anand Ramakrishna, Corporate Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft, noted that the firm has moved into production on Cisco Silicon One P200-powered systems to meet growing demands for cloud and high-performance services. Dennis Cai, Vice President and Head of Network Infrastructure at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, said Alibaba has deployed its Quantum Cat router at massive scale with the same silicon, delivering 51.2 Tbps capacity paired with Alibaba’s custom systems and the SONiC operating system.
Inside data centers, Cisco expanded its Silicon One line. The 102.4T G300 is available for customer sampling and the first G300-powered systems are shipping. The new G302, a 51.2T switching silicon with 200G SerDes for top-of-rack use, integrates 1.6T optics and direct-to-chip liquid cooling; it is planned to ship before the end of 2026. With NVIDIA, Cisco announced plans for the Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable, or USFP, a high-density 400Gb/s-per-lane optical module expected to offer four times the bandwidth density and 1.3 times the power efficiency of 200Gb/s-per-lane optics. The partners intend to develop an open industry specification through a community-led multi-source project. Cisco also introduced the Silicon One A100-powered 8001 management system and plans to extend Live Protect support for Cisco-validated SONiC customers starting mid-year 2027.
These steps expand open, programmable networking options that operators can use to manage and recover AI infrastructure at scale.
